The Banana T^ATJET. 221 



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locality. Jamaica has not much land that can really be 

 said to be suitable for banana cultivation, for although 

 this may seem somewhat paradoxical in face of the 

 apparent vastness and success of the industry, neverthe- 

 less it is easily demonstrable and only proves what a 

 grand field is open for trade, where land, climate and 

 shipping facilities are really suited to this business. 



Jamaica lies nearly east and west, with a range of 

 mountains running through the length of the Island, 

 varying in height from over 7,000 feet in the east 

 end to 2,000 in the west. The prevailing trade- 

 wind from the south-east drives therefore obliquely 

 across the Island, carrying the rain clouds, which break 

 on the highest peaks in the east, these inducing a 

 certain amount of the rain to fall on the weather side ; 

 amounting to some 70 to 90 inches a year in the 

 parish of St. Thomas-in-the-East, gradually decreasing 

 to 30 or 40 inches at Kingston, behind which the moun- 

 tains only attain a height of 1,500 feet. Immediately 

 behind St. Thomas is the parish of Portland, which 

 receives the bulk of the rainfall, amounting on an average 

 to about 200 inches a year, (while during last No- 

 vember 80 inches were recorded) and following in the 

 same oblique line, the rainfall drops to 40 or 50 inches in 

 St. Ann's, while the next parish Trelawny is invariably 

 parched with drought. 



The centre of the banana business is in Portland, 

 which is entirely a mountainous distri6l with hardly any 

 flat land, and with the exception of a few miles of cart- 

 road, nothing but mule tracks, zigzagging up the hills and 

 across innumerable streams and rivers which are often 

 impassable, form the means of communication between 



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